Each Summer, United States Power Soccer teams converge on a Midwest venue for the Conference Cup Series, the national championship for all four divisions; Premier, Champions, Presidents, and Founders. This year the chosen venue is the Turnstone Center in Fort Wayne, IN which is designed specifically for adaptive sports and services for people with disabilities. The Plassman Athletic Center at Turnstone features enough room for four Power Soccer matches to be played simultaneously throughout the tournament (with two courts shown on livestream by powersoccershop.com).

On Day 1 today, Founders and Presidents Conference teams kicked the four day event off. Each team played three group stage games to decide seeding for the knockout round. The Founders matches were nearly all high scoring affairs. The Wisconsin Warriors blasted out of the gate with a 14-2 victory over the Glendale Rough Riders. Led by veterans Mackenzie Damon, Annie Heathcote, and Tyler Engel, the Warriors continued with wins over the San Jose Rockets and Shepherd Strikers. The Central Valley Ghostriderz, one of a few teams coming all the way from California (Fresno in their case), similarly sweeped the competition in the opposite group.

The Presidents Conference tournament’s first day may have had less high scoring matches than Founders but they made it just as exciting. In their second year in the Presidents Conference, Chippewa Valley Hooligans cruised through their group competition. They started out with an exciting 5-3 win over Tidewater Piranhas, then finished with a shutout of the home-team Turnstone Furious Flyers, and a 3-1 win over the Arizona Heat.

The Brooks Barracudas and River City Phoenix shared the spotlight of the other Presidents Conference group. They both started with shutouts over BORP Shockers and ASPO Force respectively. Switching teams, the Barracudas later tied ASPO while the Phoenix shut out the Shockers. This set them up for a terrific late-day matchup. River City controlled the ball early on, leading for much of the game 1-0. Some back and forth action ensued all the way until the 40th minute. In the final play of stoppage time in the second half, the Barracudas drove down the field and knocked in the tying goal!

Securing a number four seed with the tie, Brooks Barracudas will continue alongside their fellow Presidents teams in knockout rounds tomorrow. The Founders teams will do the same while the Premier and Champions Conferences get underway. The top tier, Premier features newly promoted San Jose Steamrollers and GLASA Chicago Fire facing off against the heavy hitters including Circle City Rollers, CNY United, and Minnesota Magic. BORP Crushers and Northeast Passage Wildcats similarly move up to Champions this year to prove their worth in tougher competition. It was an exciting first day and we know it’ll only get better from here!

Day 1 Tournament Standings

In addition to covering this event, the Athletes Roll team is at the amazing Turnstone Center selling our gear!! We have shirts, tanktops (for the 90 degree weather coming this weekend), sweatshirts, and more with five dollars from each sale donated to the US Power Soccer Association to help them continue to put on such amazing tournaments and continue to grow the sport!! Hope to see you there!!